STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are investigating the death of a 19-year-old male found dead of a gunshot wound to the head yesterday afternoon in Livingston near the shoreline across from Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden.

The body was discovered about 1 p.m. on gravel by the water's edge at Snug Harbor Road and Richmond Terrace, said police. The victim, a white male, was pronounced dead on the scene, said cops. He was not immediately identified, pending family notification.

Police said the probe is continuing.

The body was found near an outcropping of rocks and what appeared to be the remnants of an wooden pier. A paved path leads down from Richmond Terrace through woods toward the waterline.

It joins another concrete path that extends easterly toward the Staten Island Ferry.

A neighborhood resident said people often come to the secluded spot to read. Others fish there.

Police cordoned off the pathways with yellow and white crime-scene tape.

A half-hour after the finding, police could be seen talking by the path with a bicyclist and another man.

That man, who left the scene at 2 p.m., told a reporter he had found the corpse.

"All I know is it's a dead body by the beach," said the man, who declined to identify himself or provide other information before driving away.

Shortly thereafter, emergency service personnel, due to the incoming tide, moved the body up from the shoreline to a drier spot in the woods. A white sheet covered the corpse.

There are no homes in the immediate area where the body was found. It is several hundred feet from the entrance to Snug Harbor. The intersection of Bard Avenue is also several hundred feet away.

One onlooker said he occasionally walks his dogs down on the path.

"Thank God, I didn't walk my dog there this morning," said the man, who would not give his name.

The discovery, coincidentally, occurred about six hours before the start of the 28th annual Neptune Ball at Snug Harbor. The ball is Snug Harbor's largest fund-raising initiative, and provides funds to sustain the organization's many cultural programs and an opportunity to recognize the contributions of its supporters.